Yes, substitute trans fat shortening. If the coffeemate is powdered, you add hot water to it to make the required number of tablespoons. Otherwise, use liquid without adding water. She says to use a "generous" cup ofr shortening for each cup of powdered sugar, so a bit more than a level cup.It's a nice recipe. Good luck!

Well my husband loves the flavor. It doesn't have that sickeningly sweet flavor like the last buttercream I made. Though unfortunately I didn't get that SMOOTH texture I was hoping for. Too many air bubbles. I made a half batch only so it wasn't totally covering the beater - so it's pretty bubbly. I guess there's not much I can do about that though. Hopefully I'll be able to do something with it.

You should make a full batch to really get the right consistency...and use creamer that's a 1:1 ratio. (powder to water). What kind of mixer do you have? There are lots of variations on ratios for sizes of mixers.

Yeah I can see where you'd need the full batch for the recipe to not have all of the air bubbles - but I have a 6 qt KA and was only making an 8" birthday cake - so even half of the batch was really over-doing it! Oh well! I managed to smooth it pretty well anyway.